For the third year in a row, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) ranks Michigan third in the United States for the number of hate crimes. Michigan reported 653 hate crimes in 2006, placing it behind California (1,297) and New Jersey (759). While part of Michigan's ranking may be due to the fact that it does a better job reporting hate crimes than many other states, an official with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights quoted in the State News said that the number is related to a rise in neo-Nazi/Ku Klux Klan groups in Michigan combined with longstanding patterns of segregation. Seventy-five percent of the hate crimes reported in Michigan were racial in nature. In Grand Rapids, thirty-five hate crimes were reported, twenty-six of which were racial in nature (four were based on sexual orientation).

The FBI defines a hate crime as:

"...a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin."